Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—The U of L women stayed at No. 4 in the new AP poll.

—Due to expected inclement weather, Louisville baseball has moved its home opener against Eastern Kentucky to Tuesday at 4 p.m. The Cards kicked off their 2018 season with three wins over the weekend.

—Louisville still can’t get defensive rebounds. It’s a recurring problem that might be too late to fix.

UNC started hot but ended up shooting 48.6 percent from the field. Yet Roy Williams’ team averaged 1.24 points per possession, the mark of ruthlessly efficient offensive rebounding.

Compounding Louisville’s issue is what’s next. Duke and NC State both rank among the top 20 nationally in offensive rebounding, and they are two of Louisville’s final four opponents.

”It’s something we just have to harp on,” Padgett said. “We’re not team rebounding.”

Padgett pointed out that Ray Spalding grabbed 12 rebounds, and the rest of the team only got 20.

”That’s a problem,” he said.

And it’s not a new one.

Several times this season, Louisville overcame its defensive rebounding flaws by making 3-pointers or generating turnovers.

Do that, and perhaps the Cardinals can find ways to win some of their final four games of the regular season.

But it’s a fine line Louisville walks each time out, and Padgett and his players are running out of time in their search for consistent answers.

—Donovan Mitchell sits down for a chat (video) with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and talks about his breakout rookie season and his efforts to not lose sight of who he is.

—Joel Berry’s block of Ray Spalding was the nail in the coffin Saturday night. Theo Pinson said afterward that someone needs to dunk on Berry to bring him back down to earth.

—Jeff Greer sifted through more than 400 emails sent to interim Louisville president Greg Postel in the days after news of the FBI investigation broke, and the results are pretty fantastic. People had all sorts of suggestions for who the new head coach should be (Pete Gillen!), and they REALLY didn’t want Tom Crean to be the interim hire.

And then, of course, there was this.

I might frame this and hang it in my basement.

BTW I think it would be a home run hire.

—Kansas has gotten the friendliest home whistle in college basketball for years. Now everyone in the Big 12 is calling them out.

—Shoutout to Dr. Saturday for going right at Mike Mayock’s throat here.

—Louisville’s loss to North Carolina dropped the Cards 10 spots in the RPI down to No. 51.

—CBS’ Jerry Palm has Louisville as one of the “first four teams out” of his latest bracket.

—United States President Taylor Swift will have abolished sports by the time all the mess from the past three years has been sorted out.

—Frank Martin offered a brief update on Brian Bowen Monday.

—Updated college hoops Player of the Year odds via Mr. Bovada:

NCAA AP Player of the Year – Odds to Win

Trae Young 2/3

Jalen Brunson 10/3

DeAndre Ayton 6/1

Trevon Bluiett 6/1

Marvin Bagley 7/1

Keita Bates-Diop 14/1

—The ACC is currently the top-rated conference in women’s college basketball according to the RPI. The league tournament should be a blast.

—Andy Katz recaps the week that was in college hoops and throws some love in Joel Berry’s direction.

—The U of L men’s tennis team took down Northwestern over the weekend. The women knocked off Furman.

—Sports Illustrated correctly predicted a Donovan Mitchell breakout at All-Star Weekend.

—Donovan remains the best.

—Duke Basketball Report looks at Louisville’s shot-blocking prowess.

—If you missed, it Louisville football got new WR commit.

—A behind the scenes look at Saturday night from a UNC viewpoint.

The defense in that video ... man.

—And finally, R&R is on from 3-6 this afternoon talking about the UNC loss, what it means for the future, and everything else that went down this weekend. Listen here.